A landlord was left physically sick after seeing the disgusting mess left in a house he’d rented out.

Ian Twigg had bought the house near Burton town centre as part of his plan to retire early and make a rental income from the property.

However, it has now ended up costing him thousands after the house was completely trashed and every room left full of rubbish. Ian says the smell alone was enough to make his stomach turn.

One of the bedrooms took 60 bin bags to empty and the landlord says he had to use mops on all the walls to get human excrement off.

He said the rooms were also filled with dirty nappies and used sanitary towels.

Mr Twigg said: “It made me feel sick; physically sick. There’s no structural damage but it’s had to be completely cleared out. The carpets are gone – it’s hard to describe how bad it was. We were using mops on the walls to get the poo off.

“We’re going to have to redecorate. It’s so unjust as we’ve been very good landlords.

It is not the first time the 57-year-old says he had problems with the mess. He told StaffordshireLive he had to get rid of rats at the house before and thought the tenants had learned their lesson. He says he had even had to pay for a hotel while the work was carried out.

The tenants had lived in the house for two years but for the last six months but, according to Mr Twigg, had not paid rent.

He says he had to get them out using an abandonment order.

Alarm bells had started ringing when the tenant would not let the gas man in when they needed a new certificate, Mr Twigg said, adding he has not been able to go into the property for the last year due to Covid.

One of the bedrooms had just been used as a bin, he said, and excrement was smeared along the walls, along with and poo and urine all over the floors. He had to hire a second skip to get rid of the rubbish.

Mr Twigg says he has now been left thousands out of pocket, with the former tenants already owing thousands in unpaid rent before they have started on making the repairs needed.

He added that it will make him more wary of renting it out again.

The father-of-three said: “It’s very difficult as we have had to pay all of the bills in the house and they’ve got away scot-free.”